Sheffield Wednesday: Third time lucky hope for Owls

Wednesday will be hoping it is a case of third time lucky when they begin their Championship campaign away at Brighton and Hove Albion on August 9.

The Owls have not fared too well on their previous two visits to the Amex Stadium, which the Seagulls moved into three years ago.

Under Dave Jones’ leadership, Wednesday slumped to a 3-0 defeat back in September 2012 and just over a year later were held to a 1-1 draw, with Keith Andrews late strike cancelling out Matty Fryatt’s first-half opener.

Brighton represent one of the Owls’ longest trips of the regular season and the fixture will also be Sami Hyypia’s first competitive match in charge of the Seagulls. The ex-Finland international, sacked by German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen in April, agreed a three-year with the club earlier this month. He replaced Oscar Garcia, who resigned as Brighton’s head coach following their loss to Derby in the Championship play-off semi-finals.

It is Hyypia’s first management job in England. He retired from playing in 2011 at the age of 37.